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1. James K. Galbraith (University of Texas), War is Hell

General William Tecumseh Sherman had a complete legal right to repress the armed rebellion his armies encountered in Tennessee, Georgia and the Carolinas. This right was based on the authority of the United States, to preserve the Union. That Sherman did so violently, that he waged war on civilians, seized property and burned houses, did not diminish this. Nor did it give England or France or anyone else any legal or moral standing to intervene in our Civil War.

By what standard does the United States now claim legal or moral standing to prevent the Yugoslav National Army from repressing armed rebellion in Kosovo?

…Kosovo, never has been independent. That its population happens to be 90 percent ethnic Albanian, and now wants independence, is irrelevant. An ethnic enclave has no national rights, and cannot invite us to intervene on its side in a civil war.

But has the war turned to something much graver, namely genocide? …In Kosovo after one year, there have been so far about two thousand casualties. …The Serb strategy in Kosovo is harsh. But it is not genocide, so far. 

NATO's case thus depends on the assertion that "genocide would occur" in the absence of our bombing. This would justify our actions -- if it were true. But what is the evidence? Have we intercepted plans, orders? If we had, Clinton and Albright would say so. They have not… …If we had evidence of genocide, or plans for genocide, then we could have sought international legal authority for our actions. The correct forum for this is the United Nations Security Council. The UN did give us the authority we needed to conduct, for instance, the Gulf War. But NATO did not seek such authority for Kosovo….Perhaps the evidence was not good enough.

And so, perhaps, our true motive is different. Perhaps it reflects instead what is quite openly stated: our frustration that Yugoslavia would not agree to diktat on the matter of a Kosovo peace settlement. But why should it? Agreements, by definition, must be mutual. We have not sought, and certainly have not achieved, a settlement acceptable to Serbia as well as to the Albanian leaders of Kosovo. We have instead operated by threat, and agreements reached under threat of force are not valid in any event. In our dealings with Belgrade, we have flagrantly ignored this principle of international law and common sense.

…Clinton, Albright and Holbrooke were seduced by the weird logic of "credible threat." They will pay a price in history, for discrediting NATO and for bringing ourselves, twenty-five years after Vietnam, back into disrepute. Our policy in Kosovo is not only wrong. It is not only illegal. It is also not very bright. It is like playing chess one move at a time, as they say in the Texas League.

(James K. Galbraith, LBJ School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin, 3-30-99)

2. Raphael Israeli (Jerusalem University), International Piracy In Kosovo

Imagine an increasing Mexican population in southern California, or a growing Arab community in southern France, which would declare its will to secede from the American or the French heartland, and would use violence and terror to achieve its goal. Would Mexico or Algeria be then entitled to bomb Los Angeles or Marseille in order to support the dissidents's claim for independence? If they did, the civilized world would be unanimous in condemning this as an act of international piracy. This is more or less what is happening in Kosovo today. Much more than France, and certainly much longer than the U.S., the Serbs have considered Kosovo, since the 14th Century, as the cradle of their culture and ethnic identity, and as the stage where their history has unfolded. Over the past decades, due to the poverty and misery in neighboring Albania, tens of thousands of immigrants, for the most part illegal, have infiltrated into Kosovo to seek new opportunities

…NATO bombardments in Yugoslavia are not because Serbia rejects peace in Kosovo, but because the West wishes to back the demand of the Albanians for self-determination at the expense of their hosts, and insists on the presence of an international force on the sovereign territory under Belgrade’s lawful jurisdiction.

This is something the proud Serbs reject, exactly as Washington and Paris would have opposed any interference of outsiders in their internal matters. True, there is the moral question of atrocities, and the international obligation to avert them. But, in addition to the proven inefficiency of the Western threats in this regard, there is also the factual question of presenting a true and balanced picture to the world. The atrocities did not begin with the Serbs, since they are the interested party to maintain peace and quiet in Kosovo, if only to ensure the livelihood of the Serb minority in that territory…Under conditions of guerilla warfare, atrocities are bound to happen, on both sides, gory and inexcusable as they be. We did not forget the atrocities committed by the Americans in My Lai, or by the French in Algeria, under circumstances of guerilla warfare, even as these self-righteous nations were not defending their national territory but far away colonial acquisitions.

If this new form of international piracy is allowed to pass, more foci of unrest will arise at the heart of the West which will throw into chaos most of the multi-ethnic societies of those countries. And so, instead of focusing the struggle against the rising threat of fundamentalist Islam, in which the Serbs have stood in the forefront first in Bosnia and now in Kosovo, it will be tragic for the West if it divided its ranks and weakened itself in this exercise of self immolation that is hard to understand, much less to condone

(Raphael Israeli, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Jerusalem, ISRAEL)

3. Barry Chamish (Israeli Journalist, author of "Israel Betrayed")

"Barely a few days before the EU and the US, collectively called NATO, sent their flying dogs of war against Serbia, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu was in Berlin meeting with the leaders of the European Union. You would think with the attack on the Balkans pending they'd be too busy to have time for a little tete-a-tete with Bibi... But, no; they organized their most fateful meeting with an Israeli leader since the beginning of their continental unity. They told him he'd better not stand in the way of a PLO state with East Jerusalem as its capital or watch out.

The watch out part was Kosovo. Netanyahu got the message and like the Yugoslav president Milosevic before him, flew to Russia for some counterweight. And lo and behold, the Kremlin greeted him like visiting royalty. When the meetings were over, Bibi and Boris agreed to make a united stand against "Islamic fanaticism." What they meant to say, but could not, was that both Israel and Russia were sick of the New World Order plots against their nations and they were forming a, probably futile, little alliance against the Trilateral Commission, Council On Foreign Relations (CFR), Bilderberg group and all those who were now heating up the Balkans, and Chechnya, and Turkey and everywhere else where ethnic tensions could be turned into massacres.

Undoubtedly, both leaders are well aware of how it's done. Take a busload of Christian Lebanese children, blow it up, blame it on the PLO and before long you’ve got perfectly civilized Christians killing Moslems out of raw bloodlust. Or take a Serb village, or more if necessary, have some Bosnian Muslims kill every living being within and before long, you'll get just the right kind of savagery from the Serbs.

Then you make the Lebanese Christians the bad guys, with a stage-managed media campaign portraying them as bloodthirsty fascists determined to wipe out the hapless, innocent Palestinians who tried to carve out their own fiefdom out of Lebanon. Apply the same formula to Kurds, Tutsis, Israelis, Afrikaaners and Serbs. The important thing is to back Marxist Moslems over democratic Christians and Jews. And once the world has been indoctrinated enough to think there is an issue of right and wrong to be dealt with, send in the planes followed by the ground troops of the New World Order armed services.

And once the white Christians and Jews are out of power in Africa, it becomes so much easier to take control of the wealth and resources of a whole continent. All you have to do is install more Marxist dictators, stir up wars, spread epidemics of incurable diseases and now you're talking real easy pickings.

Around 1992, the CFR decided to begin a campaign of worldwide "peace processes" all formulated to result in ghastly wars. After manipulating the fall of the Soviet Union a few years before, innumerable opportunities awaited them behind the former Iron Curtain. After such NWO personalities as Henry Kissinger and Lord Carrington eliminated the last bastions of wealth and security in Africa, it was a piece of cake for them to initiate bloodbaths in Somalia and Rwanda. Soon the NWO planners will turn their attentions to other "peace processes" they started in Northern Ireland and Israel, but first they must dispose of Yugoslavia.

It all began a long time ago, when the CFR sent Kissinger Associates partner Lawrence Eagleburger to Belgrade to corrupt and worm his way into the Yugoslav leadership. He bought a controlling interest in the country's largest bank for his bosses, he even introduced the Yugo car to America, bankrolling a large chain of dealerships.

Once the ruling classes were corrupted, the standard methods were employed to stir ethnic rivalries and force the Serbian hand. As usual, peoples who had drifted to historical Serb lands to seek improved economic opportunities were propagandized and heated up enough to declare their desire for independent breakaway states. This, no sovereign nation could tolerate. And like the Russians in Chechnya, or the Israelis in Jerusalem, the governments had no choice but to draw the line to save the souls of their nations.

So, armed and organized challenges to the government had to be funded. And like the PLO, Afghanis, half a dozen Latin American rebel groups before them etc. etc. the European drug trade was opened to the Kosovo Liberation Army. Today NATO is fighting on behalf of one of the largest heroin suppliers of Western Europe. But that's part for the NWO course.

Once the fighting began, in came the NWO "peacemakers": Vance,Christopher, Holbrooke, Albright, every one of them a loyal CFR member, to impose conditions the Serbs could never possibly accept. Milosevic’s unforgivable crime was standing up to the NWO and refusing to allow its army to roam his land at will.

And for this he is being punished. And Netanyahu has got the message. If he doesn't play ball, he will be demonized just like Milosevic, the world will be primed to despise him and in will come the NWO's air force. If he doesn’t give the PLO its state on historical Jewish territory this year here is what will happen:

The PLO will unilaterally declare a state and Israel will annex the remaining West Bank territories in her possession. A wave of Arab terrorism will force Israel to retaliate and a cycle of violence will begin which will duplicate that of Yugoslavia. The "peacemakers" of the NWO will arrive and insist that Israel accept every clause of the Oslo Accords, give up its history and heritage to the PLO and divide Jerusalem. Then Israel refuses to relent, it will be painted quickly as a mortal danger to the peace of the planet. In order to "save" Israel from itself, the NWO forces will attack and impose its solutions on her.

And to most of the world, the events that lead to this war will seem totally logical. Like, in Kosovo today, the media will stage-manage every step of the war and a world under televised anesthesia will believe the broadcasters, generals and military experts. And this world will simply sleep through Israel's destruction. When it awakes it will change channels."

(Barry Chamish is an Israeli journalist, his new book is "Israel Betrayed")

4. Robert Hayden (University of Pittsburgh)

…Perhaps the niceties of international law may be forgotten if the cause is right. But what is the cause?

… Perhaps the "values" are the need to protect civilians from military attack. In that case, the US will need to put Turkey on its target list, not to mention Israel, which has attacked civilians in Lebanon (part of which it also occupies) with some frequency for many years now.

…Do our values include terrorizing the innocent populations of Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac, Nis and other Serbian cities? Do they include damaging the power and water supplies of these people? Do they include destroying the livelihood of these people? 

…Advance the cause of peace? Increasing conflict, and radically increasing the risk of even greater war, seems an odd way to achieve this goal.

…Advance our interests? Perhaps. But what are our interests in this case? Bill Clinton has not said. And when we know what they are, will they justify the violations of international law and the betrayal of our supposed values that are manifested by NATO's massive aggression against Yugoslavia?

…In a transparent display of hypocrisy, President Clinton has said that NATO is not waging war against the people of Yugoslavia, but against their government. Can anyone believe that people under attack will hate anyone other than the attackers? NATO's aggression has betrayed those who oppose Milosevic's dictatorship, thus strengthening the rule of the man whom Bill Clinton accurately described as "a dictator who has done nothing since the cold war ended but start new wars and pour gasoline on the flames of ethnic and religious division." There is now a new arsonist in the volatile Balkans: NATO.

(Robert M. Hayden is Director of the Center for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.)

5. Dr. Ronald L Hatchett (University of St. Thomas), 
Would You Sign This Agreement??

The primary justification for our military strikes against Yugoslavia is its refusal to sign the Kosovo peace agreement put forward by the U.S. and its allies at Rambouillet France. The President told us that the Albanians chose peace by signing the agreement even though "they did not get everything they wanted." The Serbs, he said, refused to negotiate, even though the agreement left Kosovo as part of Yugoslavia.

…Most Americans assume that the deal we put together at Rambouillet was even handed, offering advantage to neither side, but including the core concerns of both Albanians and Serbs alike….The Agreement is available in its entirety on the Internet at http://www.transnational.org, or in a U.S. State Department summary at http://www.usia.gov.=20

Take a look at it and you will see that the "peace plan" actually gives the Albanians precisely what they want: de facto independence now, with guaranteed de jure independence in three years. For the Serbs, signing the Rambouillet agreement would actually be signing away all Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo immediately. Under the agreement, "Kosovo will have a President, a Prime Minister and Government, an Assembly, its own Supreme Court, Constitutional Court and other Courts and Prosecutors."

…For the Kosovo Albanians, the Rambouillet agreement gives then total control over the province immediately. The only sacrifice required of them is to wait three years before the arrangements are made legally permanent.

For the Serbs, the Rambouillet agreement means that immediately upon signing they lose all sovereignty over Kosovo. Total political control would be in the hands of the Albanians and the NATO Civilian Implementation Mission. Yugoslav laws would no longer apply in Kosovo. 

…The Yugoslavian delegation at Rambouillet agreed to give the Albanians autonomy in Kosovo - control over their day to day lives including religious, education, and health care systems, and local government operations. But they tried to negotiate changes to preserve the right of the Yugoslav federal government to determine economic and foreign policy, for Yugoslav national law to continue to apply in Kosovo, and for any international presence in Kosovo to be limited to observation and advice, not control.

The Serbian negotiating efforts were summarily dismissed and the Serbs were told they had only two choices: sign the agreement as written, or face NATO bombing.

What would you have done if you were on the Serb delegation? 

(Dr. Ronald L Hatchett, Director, Center for International Studies, The University of St. Thomas)

6. American pilots saved in Serbia during WWII
An Open Letter To Our Troops In The Former Yugoslavia From Over 500 Pilots Saved By The Serbian People During WWII

During World War II, we were in the Army Air Corps list as "Missing in Action" in the very same area you are now serving. If we may, we would like to relay to you a frank, soldier-to-soldier message about our personal experience while there – something which politicians who sent you there have not told you and something which you have not read or seen in the anti-Serb media.

In 1944, the members of our committee were flying bombing missions out of Italy over Southern Europe. During that time over 500 of us were shot down over enemy-occupied Yugoslavia and saved from certain death by the Serbian people. Ours was the greatest rescue of American lives from behind enemy lines in history but has been kept under wraps all these years because of pressure from foreign sources.

While we were there, those of us who were wounded were given whatever medical supplies they had even at the deprivation of their own troops. If there was one piece of bread in the house, or one egg, it went to the American airmen while the Serb went hungry. If there was one bed or one blanket, it went to us while the Serb slept on the bare ground. No risk of sacrifice was too great to insure our safety and well being. One experience which is forever seared in my memory is the time a village with 200 women and children was burned to the ground by the Germans because the Serbs would not tell them where they were hiding us. To this day, I can smell the terrible stench of their burning flesh. One does not forget such things.

The most incredible part of our rescue was that before each mission, our bomber crews were briefed by the highest levels of American intelligence that if shot down over Yugoslavia, we were to stay away from the Serbian people as they were collaborating with the Germans and "cutting off the ears of American airmen" before turning them over. Only after we were shot down did we find out the amazing thoroughness with which the truth about the Serbs was being distorted.

Further compounding this deception is the fact that while the Serbs were our allies in WWII, Croatians and Muslims (who we are favoring today) were allies of the Nazis, shooting at us and responsible for killing many of our fellow American fliers. In view of the lies we were told about the Serbs during World War II, we could not help but wonder if our foreign policy there today is the same anti-Serb bias we encountered 52 years ago. Could our career diplomats sacrifice former friends and reward former enemies in the name of political expediency???... 

…Could it be because the Croatians and Muslims outspend the Serbs 50 to one on lobbyists, media firms and campaign contributions??? ... Could this be why, "atrocities" are manufactured to make the Serbs look bad while gaining sympathy for their opponents???... Could this be why the Serbs are branded "aggressors" in land they have lived on for over 600 years???... 

…Could these be the reasons the State Department has covered up the truth of our rescue all these years and opposed our petition to express gratitude for saving over 500 American lives (a petition which is supported by the 8 million veterans of the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Air Force Association and which has been approved by the United States Senate.)???... Could it be these are the reasons the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee has also denied our petition by saying to us there are "ethnic groups in Yugoslavia" who oppose it???...

Are we mad???... You can bet your next month's paycheck that we are mad! We did not leave our families, risk our lives and watch our buddies get their arms, legs and heads blown off so that "ethnic groups in Yugoslavia" could tell us what we could or could not do in our own country.

Now that the spring thaw has set in, temperatures and tempers will start to rise in the volatile area you now find yourselves. All we ask is that in your dealings with the local people you be made aware of the eyewitness experience of your fellow comrades-in-arms. By speaking out now we have nothing to gain except a burning moral passion to tell the truth, a sworn duty to protect our national honor, a patriotic desire to express heart felt gratitude to those on foreign soil who save American lives while they are fighting in defense of our glorious country.
…We might also add that had it not been for the Serbian people, Air Force General Donald J. Smith, our chairman and one our rescued airmen, would not have survived the war and been able to dedicate 40 years of honorable service to his country.

Had it not been for the Serbian people, technical Sgt. Curtis "Bud" Diles, another of our airmen, would not be alive today in Dayton, Ohio, enjoying retirement with his 4 children and 12 grandchildren... There are hundreds of us with stories just like those.

Some of the greatest testimony to the many sacrifices made on our behalf is the many thousands of American children who are alive today solely because the Serbian people saved over 500 of their grandfathers during World War II.

…(I was one of 3 rescued American airmen who returned last year to the former Yugoslavia to commemorate the 50th anniversary of victory in Europe with the people who saved us and to visit the cow pasture that served as a landing strip from which we were rescued. The most moving experience of our sentimental trip was being cheered by over 50,000 Serbs who gathered at a mountain top to welcome us and who kept chanting "USA, USA"). 

As American military men, we have a proud tradition of "duty, honor and country" to uphold and a fierce sense of loyalty to those with whom we fought side by side in combat. We never forget their kindness nor do we return their battlefield sacrifices for us by bombing their women and children.

…Please keep these untarnished truths in mind as you now serve our country and all it stands for, and may God bless you all as we pray for your safe return.

(Richard L. Felman, Major USAF, (Ret) President National Committee of American Airmen)

There have been many other letters and statements opposing the bombing of Yugoslavia by individuals and organizations such as: Noam Chomsky, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn (Nobel prize for literature), Harold Pinter, Metropolitan Archibishop Pavlos (Holy Metropolis of the Greek Orthodox Old Calendar Church of America), Mikis Theodoropoulos (Greek composer), World church bodies, Raju Thomas (Marquette Univ. Mil. WI), Satish Nambiar (Fmr. Head of the UN peacekeeping mission if Bosnia), and so on.

1. Professors of International Law, University of Belgrade

The armed attack on Yugoslavia, which started on 24 March 1999, is a grave violation of one of the fundamental rules of contemporary international law, enshrined in Art. 2.4 of the United Nations Charter. The Charter does prohibit both the use and the threat of force in international relations. NATO action is an act of aggression according to the definition of aggression, adopted by the United Nations with the concurrence of all states now using force against FRY. 

… Since the pronouncement of the Nuremberg judgement in 1946 aggression has been considered an international crime entailing criminal responsibility for its perpetrators. "Humanitarian intervention" cannot justify an act of aggression, neither can the circumstances in Yugoslavia, including the situation in Kosovo at the moment of the beginning of the hostilities, deprive the perpetrated deed of its illegality.

The very foundations of the international order, which has been maintained in the last 50 years in spite of many challenges, are now shaken. If any country, especially a large and powerful one, can take justice in its own hands, the future of the world becomes uncertain and wrought with danger.

The undersigned professors of international law protest against this act of aggression and appeal to the governments concerned to immediately cease their military operations. They call on all UN members to exert pressure in that direction. We hope and believe that the responsibility of all participants in this tragedy will soon be impartially determined….

Ljubivoje Acimovic, former Counsel, Institute of International Politics and Economy, Belgrade. Vojin Dimitrijevic, former Professor of International Law and International Relations, University of Belgrade Law School; Director, Belgrade Center for Human Rights; former Vice-Chairman, UN Human Rights Committee. Dejan Jansa, former Professor of Public International Law, University of Novi Sad Law School; former member, UN Human Rights Committee. Konstantin Obradovic, former Professor of Public International Law, Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade; Member of the Institute of International Humanitarian Law, San Remo. Obrad Rasic, former Professor of International Organizations, Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade. Milan Djahovic, former Director of the Institute of International Politics and Economy, Belgrade and Professor of International Law at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade; Member of the Institut de Droit International. 
Belgrade, 27 March 1999

2. Veran Matic, Radio B92

… The bombing of Yugoslavia demonstrates the political impotence of US President Bill Clinton and the Western alliance in averting a human catastrophe in Kosovo. The protection of a population under threat is a noble duty, but it requires a clear strategy and a coherent end game. As the situation unfolds on the ground and in the air day by day, it is becoming more apparent that there is no such strategy. Instead, NATO is fulfilling the prophecy of its own doomsaying: each missile that hits the ground exacerbates the humanitarian disaster that NATO is supposed to be preventing. 

.…My friends in the West keep asking me why there is no rebellion. Where are the people who poured onto the streets every day for three months in 1996 to demand democracy and human rights? Zoran Zivkovic, the opposition mayor of the city of Nis answered that last week: "Twenty minutes ago my city was bombed. The people who live here are the same people who voted for democracy in 1996, the same people who protested for a hundred days after the authorities tried to deny them their victory in the elections. They voted for the same democracy that exists in Europe and the US. Today my city was bombed by the democratic states of the USA, Britain, France, Germany and Canada! Is there any sense in this?"

…Most of these people feel betrayed by the countries which were their models. These people are now compelled to take up arms and join their sons who are already serving in the army. With the bombs falling all around them nobody can persuade them - though some have tried - that this is only an attack on their government and not their country.

… I can't help asking one question: How can F16s stop people in the street killing one another? Only days before the NATO aggression began, Secretary-General Solana suggested establishing a "Partnership for Democracy" in Serbia and the other countries of the formerYugoslavia to promote stability throughout the region. Then, in a rapid U-turn, he gave the order to attack Yugoslavia.

…With these attacks, it seems to me, the West has washed its hands of the people, Albanians, Serbs and others, living in the region. NATO’s bombs have blasted the germinating seeds of democracy out of the soil of Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro and ensured that they will not sprout again for a very long time.

…The free media in Serbia has for years opposed nationalism, hatred and war. As a representative of those media, and as a man who has more than once faced the consequences of my political beliefs, I call on President Bill Clinton to put a stop to NATO's attack on my country. I call on him to begin negotiations which aim at securing the right to a peaceful life and democracy for all the people in Yugoslavia, regardless of their ethnic background.

(VERAN MATIC is editor-in-chief of Belgrade's banned Radio B92 and a leading peace activist. He has won many international awards for media and democracy, the latest being last year's MTV Europe "Free Your Mind" award. Early this year he was named one of this year's hundred Global Leaders for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. Belgrade, March 30, 1999)

3. Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Mathematical Institute

Dear friends,

When we were young, we thought that scientists should be the conscience of the world. It is in the hope that at least some of this feeling still exists, that I am writing this letter.
B E L G R A D E I S B E I N G B O M B E D !

Assuming everything you read about Serbs is true, ask yourself what stupendous and unprecedented thing has Yugoslavia done to make NATO countries:
1. violate NATO charter 2. violate UN charter 3. violate their own Constitutions?

…Any reasonable person will say that Serbs have to surrender and accept American demands. Unfortunately, there is almost no chance for this. I will just mention three events from Serbian history:
1. Serbian Medieval King Lazar refused the offer by Turkish Sultan Murat to become his vassal (a sort of "Partnership for Peace") and instead took the complete Serbian army
into the battle with far superior Turkish army, in Kosovo field 610 years ago. The result was that almost all Serbian nobleman were killed including King Lazar.
2.In 1914 Serbian government accepted all demands but one of the ultimatums issued by Austria: that Austrian police investigates the assassination on Serbian territory. As a result of this Serbia lost one third of its population (over 50% of men fit for military service).
3.On March 25 of 1941,Yugoslav government signed a treaty with Hitler which was more favorable than the "agreement" offered by Clinton administration in February of 1999 Serbs took to the streets on March 27 and overthrew the government. As a result, Nazis bombed Belgrade on April 6 and invaded the country. 

…So what do you do with such nation? Is it ripe for the Final Solution? Is it not a major obstacle to progress? The "Ministry of Truth" is on the verge of proclaiming that only dead Serb is a good Serb (I saw some statements which are just a step away). If you are not ready to believe in this, please try to do something to stop this NATO massacre.

P.S. I have been writing this during an air raid warning. A few minutes ago there were several explosions. As a true Serb, I refuse to go to shelter. I may be killed but will not be intimidated by these people. 

(Zoran Markovic, Director, Mathematical Institute, holds a University of Pennsylvania Ph.D., has taught mathematical logic at U Penn, Princeton, and UC Berkeley. Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Belgrade, March 27-28, 1999)
 

4. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade

The Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, proud to belong to this nation with its honorable history, and in accordance with the academic tradition of liberty and humanity, is now raising a voice against the aggression that is threatening not only Serbs but also other neighboring nations with genocide. The oft-repeated rhetoric about humanitarian catastrophe is now concerning a reality, due to the intervention of outside forces which is destroying the legal and humanistic foundations of Europe. Moral conscience demands that this aggression be stopped immediately in order to clear the path to real and realistic negotiations by no one’s dictate – if we want to preserve the spirit of European culture that has shaped our world, and prevent it from becoming its own grave-digger.

(Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, March 30, 1999.)
 

5. Vojislav Mihajlovic, Mayor of Belgrade

Dear Colleague,

I address myself to You as the Mayor of Belgrade, the first European Capital city bombed after the WW2, appealing to Your conscience, asking You to use Your authority and Your renown to stop the NATO aggression against the FR Yugoslavia and its Capital City.

At the moment I am writing these lines, the citizens of Belgrade, children, young people, women, alder people, are in shelters, where they had to escape from the blasts of the destructive weapons.

In our city innocent civilians suffer while NATO bombs destroy hospitals, kindergartens, schools, housing buildings, factories and churches. The vital services of the city are in jeopardy in Belgrade, primarily those involved in the humane activities of protection of the diseased people and of children. 

Please, do whatever You can to stop the crimes against the citizens of Yugoslavia and Belgrade who die and suffer, completely innocent.

Respectfully Yours, 

Vojislav Mihajlovic, Mayor of Belgrade, on 31st of March '99.
 

6. Clinical Medical Center in Belgrade

"I am turning to you in the hope that this text may reach the sleepy souls of the American people. I am a gynecologist and obstetrician, and therefore, a witness of an entire different kind of tragedy which the NATO bombs have brought about. Air raid sirens, bomb detonations, screaming sounds of jet engines, have led to a syndrome of hypertension among the pregnant women, and an enormous rise in premature births. So the newborn babies have to depend on the oxygen, and are placed in incubators with a very high rate of mortality and morbidity.

But that's not the end of the tragedy. When the sirens go off, such preemies cannot be taken to bomb shelters, because the incubators are not portable; not here, nor anywhere else in the world. Such a situation was the cause of death of 40 newborn babies in Banja Luka, during the bombing of the Bosnian Serbs (in 1995). That’s the horror about which no one has written.

At the moment, we have 59 such babies at the Gynecology Hospital in Belgrade. The medical staff of the clinic has decided to stay with the babies, regardless of the consequences.

The reason for our great trepidation is that we are very close to the headquarters of the Yugoslav Army HQ building (about 500 meters — about one-third of a mile), and the Belgrade Police HQ (100 meters - about 300 feet). Similar objects have already been hit in Pristina.

To make the irony even greater, eight of the 59 babies are Albanian newborns, whom we are all protecting with our bodies and lives. 

Are the American people really as blind as it seems? Where are the American intellectuals, American humanitarians, American Nobel Prize winners? What does "genocide" mean to them? Who can excuse the death of the Banja Luka babies due to a lack of oxygen or other medication?

Maybe American scientists can?. America can do everything."

(Clinical Medical Center in Belgrade, 4-1-99)
 

7. Democratic Association of Croats in Vojvodina

"In accordance with our fundamental principle that all problems must be resolved democratically and through negotiations, the Presidency of the Democratic Association of Croats in Vojvodina condemns every violence, including the attack of NATO forces on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and demands that negotiations be continued.

Our homeland is in a difficult situation. The state of war had to be introduced and many of our sons, husbands, brothers and fathers are now in danger while fulfilling their civic duty. We want them to know that they are not alone - we constantly think about them and send them our love. In such a difficult situation some of us are again raising the possibility of leaving our ancestral lands. Aware of all the difficulties yet again we affirm our determination to stay and survive!"

The Democratic Association of Croats in Vojvodina is the largest political party representing Croats in the north part of Serbia, the province of Vojvodina. It advocates autonomy for Vojvodina and Croats in Vojvodina and has been in opposition to Milosevic.

(Democratic Association of Croats in Vojvodina. Press Release Regarding NATO Attacks on FRY. Croatian Information Center (http://www.hic.hr) March 30 1999)
 

8. Mathematical High School, Belgrade
Please Help Us To Come Back To Our School

…The students and the body of teachers of the Belgrade Mathematical High School, the winners of over 150 medals in world Olympiads and other international competitions, are appealing to the world: Try to imagine yourselves in our position. 
…We appeal to all the universities of the world, where many of our former students so brilliantly started their careers having received the highest scientific degrees. The science has no fatherland, the whole world is its fatherland, says Albert Einstein. Raise your voices against this atrocity which jeopardizes not only our physical lives, but also our spirits and intellect. 
…Stop the bombs, let the thought fly freely. "A man cannot be treated like this," says Dostoevsky.
(Prof. Dr Milan Raspopovic, Director, Mathematical High School, Narodnog fronta 37 Belgrade, 3-29-99.) 

9. Serbian Chemical Society
The Serbian Chemical Society advises the world scientific community that military actions in our region may, beside the existing humanitarian threat, cause a dramatic ecological catastrophe in a broad region due to the existence and distribution of considerable capacities of chemical and related industries. We appeal to the awareness and conscience of the scientific public to contribute to efforts to stop military actions in our country as soon as possible.

(Serbian Chemical Society, Belgrade, 3-30-99)

Similar appeals have been issued by many other institutions throughout Yugoslavia. The Association of Yugoslav Theatre Artists, The Association of Yugoslav Literary Artists, The Association of Yugoslav Visual Artists, Departments of the Belgrade University, Schools and Kindergartens, Research Institutes, Medical and Humanitarian Organizations, Sport University Association of Yugoslavia, Car Factory Zastava in Kragujevac, etc.

If anyone from Pristina and Kosovo can read these messages, please call us! Please, whoever gets this message, have the strength and send your children to us! We will do everything that the children are provided for and safe! We know you are brave, but you will be even braver if you know that your children are more or less safe, or at least protected from an attack from all sides (Albanian terrorists on the ground, NATO planes in the air)! They are bombing our civilians and their TARGET are our children! SAVE THE CHILDREN! 
(Dejana Spasojevic-Ivancic and Radmila Tomic from Vojvodina, 3-27-99)

…It's 3:15 am. A 12 year old girl in my shelter is still awake. She plays with other kinds in the shelter during the day, but in the night she can’t sleep. She says "I don't know…I'm scared"
….Someone told me "I have a little 5 year old brother, he is constantly crying, he’s scared. I don't know what to tell him."…
(Letter from Belgrade, 3-29-99)

…My wife and I are having problems calming down our 4 year old son. He doesn't know what is NATO, what is air raid, what does it mean 'war'. He can't understand why we are not permitting him to go outside of the shelter and play with other kids…I hope this won't last for much longer, this is killing us all …
(Zoran Cvetanovic from Lucice, 3-30-99)

I do know that you have appropriate means to kill me (age 31), my wife (age 27), my son (age 4), my daughter (3 months old), and many other people in my fatherland. It is well known fact, that every single person’s destiny is to die some day, therefore I have no fear. Also I do know that I will not let you kill my spirit, my love for my family or my faith in Lord. That is something, no man or devil, can take away from me.
Sincerely,
Milan R. Radojevic (Human being, parent, Christian, Serb) 3-31-99

…My family in Pristina hardly stayed alive the other day. One cousin fell down the stairs when they bombed because the building trembled. She was seriously hurt. My sister-in-law, two months pregnant, is in danger of losing the baby because of stress. They didn’t go to the shelter, but in their shelter because my little cousin (1 and a half year old) is screaming because she’s scared and it’s very cold there whole night long. They decided to risk it and not to go to the cellar…
(From Marija, Pristina, 3-31-99)

…We are no longer sleeping in our house. You know how close we are to the bridge, and they will certainly bomb it (although it's so old and weak that hardly a bus can go over it. Certainly it's not a military facility!). Every day, in between the air raids, we come to see if the house is still there and then we flee to other parts of town where it’s safer. I guess we have become refugees too, although you certainly won't see us on CNN! I suppose our live are not worth anything anymore to anyone…
(Tanja, Belgrade, 4-5-99)
 
 
 
 
 

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